In many medical procedures, various physiological conditions present within a body cavity need to be monitored. These physiological conditions are typically physical in nature—such as pressure, temperature, rate-of-fluid flow, and provide the physician or medical technician with critical information as to the status of a patient's condition.
For example, one medical device that is widely used to monitor conditions is a intravascular pressure sensor. The pressure sensor senses the magnitude of a patient's blood pressure, and converts it into a representative electrical signal that is transmitted to the exterior of the patient. For most applications it is also required that the sensor is electrically energized. Some means of signal and energy transmission for such a medical device is thus required.
For the blood pressure sensor, most commonly, extremely thin electrical cables, sometimes called microcables, are provided inside a guide wire, which itself preferably is provided in the form of a tube, which often has an outer diameter in the order of 0.35 mm, and oftentimes is made of steel. In order to increase the bending strength of the tubular guide wire and improve pushability and torque response, a core wire may be positioned inside the tube. The mentioned electrical cables are then e.g. positioned in the space between the inner lumen wall and the core wire.
In a guide wire mounted sensor, the signals from the sensor, arranged at the distal end of the guide wire, are lead through the electrical leads to a male connector at the proximal end of the guide wire. In use, the male connector is connected to a corresponding female connector and the signals from the pressure sensor are transferred to an interface, which converts the signals and presents them in a desired form for an operator.
A conventional male connector for a medical device, basically comprises a core wire, a plurality of conductors, a plurality of conductive members, and insulating material therebetween. When the male connector is connected to the female connector, the conductive members transfer the signals from the conductors of the male connector to similar conductive members inside the female connector.
Several different designs of male connectors are known in the prior art, and examples of such male connectors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,980 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,090,052 A, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,908,442 B2, which are assigned to the same assignee as in the present application.
For example, the male connector used today for guide wires is made by individually attaching each conductor (an electrical lead placed alongside a core wire) to a conductive member (a contact ring which is wrapped around the core wire). Each of the conductive members are connected, by bonding or soldering, respectively, to a conductor. The core wire is used to prevent kinks and to provide strength to the male connector. Especially when the male connector is inserted into the female connector, there is a substantial risk of over-bending the male connector or damaging the thin conductors inside the connector.
Soldering or bonding the conductive members to the conductors is a time-consuming process and may be a source of manufacturing mistakes, leading to loss of time and material in the manufacturing process. For example, there may be a risk that the conductive members and the conductors are not properly connected or that they disconnect due to over-bending of the male connector and this in its turn involves a risk for short circuit in the male connector.
Consequently, there remains a need for a male connector which is less expensive, easy and straightforward to manufacture and which reduces the risk of short circuit. In addition, there is a need for a male connector which is possible to test before assembling with the medical device.
There is also a need for a male connector which makes it possible to bond or solder all the electrical cables at one end of the finished module, whereby the male connector may be mounted in one piece to electrical cable(s) for e.g. a sensor guide wire.